The Rough-skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa (Skilton, 1849)) possesses a powerful neurotoxin, tetrodotoxin, in the skin that is secondarily deposited in the ova. Although assumed to serve an antipredator function in the eggs, empirical evidence of the toxin’s role in preventing egg predation is lacking. In this study, we characterized the aquatic macroinvertebrate community at a location sympatri...

The importance of two-way interactions between animals and the physical hydraulic sedimentological environment are increasingly recognized (e.g., zoogeomorphology). Caddisflies (Trichoptera) a group aquatic insects known for their bioconstructions, particularly cases built from fine sediment silk. Caddisfly differ in size, shape density incorporated sediment, case construction may therefore aff...

Notalina roraima Holzenthal 1986 was described on the basis of a single holotype specimen from the Pantepui Region. The species is a member of the endemic Neotropical long-horned caddisfly (Trichoptera: Leptoceridae) subgenus Notalina (Neonotalina) Holzenthal 1986. We present new records of this species and describe some morphological variation in the male genitalia. Moreover, we describe and i...

A new species of the rare long-horned caddisfly genus Amphoropsyche Holzenthal is described from Ecuador, bringing the number of species known from the genus to 15. All species are very regional in their distributions and known only from very few specimens. The new species, Amphoropsyche real, is similar to a number of previously described species from Colombia (Amphoropsyche ayura, Amphoropsyc...

The Trichoptera (caddisflies) is a holometabolous insect order with 14,300 described species forming the second most species-rich monophyletic group of animals in freshwater. Hitherto, there is no mitochondrial genome reported of this order. Herein, we describe the complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of a caddisfly species, Eubasilissa regina (McLachlan, 1871). A phylogenomic analysis was carrie...

We describe a new autumnal caddisfly species Chaetopteryx bucari sp. n. from 8 localities in the Banovina region of Croatia. We also present molecular, taxonomic and ecological notes (emergence, sex ratio and seasonal dynamics) on the new species and discuss the distribution of Chaetopteryx species in general and the Chaetopteryx rugulosa group in particular. Based on Bayesian phylogenetic anal...

Two new species of the caddisfly genus Cernotina Ross, 1938 (Polycentropodidae) are described from the lowland Amazon basin of Ecuador, Cernotina tiputini, new species, and Cernotina waorani, new species. These represent the first new species described from this region. We also record from Ecuador for the first time Cernotina hastilis Flint, previously known from Tobago, and present new Ecuador...